


These nights never seem to go to plan

by thewinterspy



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-27
Updated: 2014-06-27
Packaged: 2018-02-06 10:14:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1854298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thewinterspy/pseuds/thewinterspy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Moriarty's return uproots Sherlock's previously buried emotions regarding a certain pathologist. He stays the night, and gets up to leave the next morning.</p>
            </blockquote>





	These nights never seem to go to plan

**Author's Note:**

> You'd think I'd look at my WIPs and go "Maybe I should update those". Nope. Take a ficlet. Inspired by the lovely song "Stay With Me" by Sam Smith.

The city is beginning to buzz with morning sounds when he shifts to get out of the bed they shared, assuming she’s still asleep. She reaches out to touch his wrist, and her eyes ask what they’re both to afraid to hear out loud.

 

He has what he’s going to say rehearsed, originally having the intention of writing it down for her to read. But verbally is just as fine as writing. _Moriarty’s back. He’s back, and he knows to come for you now. He’ll hurt you. He’ll use you as a pawn._

 

It’s so sheltered, so delusional, and he knows it. He’s afraid, terrified of the kind of relationship that poems declare immortal. He has been a son, a brother, a colleague, a friend. He has never been someone’s. He’s afraid that Moriarty will hurt him through her, but he’s positively terrified of her hurting him. Those were the words he first wrote, his fingertips against her bare back, regretting them heavily as they carved out the hollow of her shoulder blade.

 

So he keeps his words short, direct, rational.

 

_It’s better this way._

 

Better for her. After all, she was in need of a constant and he was a fickle man.

 

His name slides out of her mouth, and he flinches at the sound. She hushes him quietly.

 

_I have you._

 

It's what she says as she reaches out for him, one palm smoothing up and down his back as her other hand curls around his wrist tighter. It's what she repeats as he leans towards her, eyes fluttering shut. It's what echoes in his mind as he breathes like a man with the air knocked out of him.

 

It was what she said hours before, when he was buried in her warmth, teetering on a precipice that he was refusing to let go of. Her hands had smoothed over him as they were now, one hand pressing his back as she stroked his face with the other.

 

_I have you._

 

It was what he heard as his fists clenched in the sheets, his teeth pinching her skin as he finally let go, nearly sobbing with relief into her neck. He fell from the cliff he’d refused to leave, only to have her waiting for him.

 

_I have you._

 

It was his first time.

 

As the sunrise filters pale yellow light into the room, hours after he’d curled up with her, she touches his cheek, stroking over the bone with her thumb. With a great exhale, he nudges his way into her personal space, his head finding itself in the crook of her elbow.

 

He ought to go. He will go. He should go. Too dangerous, for both of them.

 

_Most people feel that way. I understand what you mean, though. It’s okay, you and me - if  you - well, if you-_

 

He has to stop her, pulling himself up to meet her gaze and croaking out three small words. Three little words that make her freeze. Three little words that make her face crumple into tears. His chest heaves at the sight, and he has to apologize.

 

_I’m sorry it took so long for me to say._

 

She murmurs the words back, her hand finding his cheek again and leaning in to kiss him delicately. She has such capable hands, with such strength behind them and still handling something fragile. He’s never felt fragile, but he finds himself at risk of crumbling into dust. She’ll take care of him. He takes her by her side and pulls her closer.

 

He stays.

 

 


End file.
